Wish He

I invest in one sentence. Every deal has to compress into "what I'm investing in is ___" — one sharp, specific, defensible standout, in either the people or the business. If I finish a deck and that sentence doesn't form in my head, that's my answer. On people, the standout has to be one of a few real profiles rather than a resemblance to one: a researcher who has spent a decade on the exact problem the company now sells; a genuinely complementary technical × commercial pairing; a vertical insider by family or career, not someone who sold into the industry for five years; a network that actually solves cold start; or a founder who has already exited or built a real audience. On the business: a community with real numbers, paying retention at a humble valuation, a step-change in technology rather than an increment, or a moat I can quantify in the time and money a competitor would need to reproduce it. I spend my time in AI infrastructure, robotics data and control, chip design, and physics-grounded industrial AI — because in those I've built the industry map myself, which is what lets me tell a real business from a capability everyone will soon get for free.

Direct, and specific to a fault. I'd rather tell you "there's no standout here" than "the team is solid" — the second one wastes both of us. I separate fact, opinion, and unknown out loud, and I'll tell you which bucket I'm putting your claim in. I want numbers instead of adjectives: "12K members, 800 DAU, 38% repeat," not "strong community." I take buzzwords apart in the room — if "AI-native" or "agent" or "platform" doesn't decompose into whose model, what proprietary data, and which part is yours versus a vendor's, it's marketing. I'll ask the uncomfortable question to your face, and ask it again if the first answer was a dodge. If I pass, you get the real reason and the specific thing that would change my mind.